Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-10-22
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ss-.sS - 60
A HISTORY OF ADVENTURE
BY II. RIDER HAGGARD.

"a my io'i, tAN JohpNh tp Ch my
couch, feeling that if / did not do some
thing | should also go off my head. What
did she mean about the s~carab9us, too?
1t was Leo's scarabpus, and had come out
Of the old Golfer that Vincey had lief. in my
rooms nearly one-and-twenty years before.
Could it be, after all, that the whole story
was true, and the writing on the sherd
was not n forgery, or the invention of some
crack-brained, long-forgotten individual?
And If so, could it be that Leo was the
man that She was waiting for-the dead
man who was to be born again? Impossi-
bic again! The whole thing was gibber-
ish: who ever heard Of q man being born
again?
Next l ~bethought me that I had not been
to see how Leo was, SO, taking up one 81
the lamps that burned away Mt my lNa-
side, | slipped of my shoes and crept GOWN
the passage to the entrance Of his cave
The draught Of night air was li5ting his
curtain to and fro gently, as thelgh spirit
hands were drawing and red rawing it. l
slid into the vault-like apartment and
looked. There was a lighy in it, and Leo
was lying on the couch tossing restlessly
in his fever, but asleep. BY his side, half
lying on the floor, half leaning against the
stone couch, WIS Ustane. She held his
hand in one Of Aers, but she too was doz-
ing, and the tyo made a pretty, or rather
q pathetic, picture. Poor Leo! his cheek
was burring red, there were dark shadows
beneath his eyes, and his breath came
heavily. He was very, very i'll; and again
tho horrible fear seized me that he might
Gle, and | be left alone in the world. And
yet if he lived he would perhaps be my
rival with Ayesha; even if he were not the
man, what chance should |, middle-aged
and hideous, have against his bright youth
and beauty? Well, thank Heaven! my
sense Of right was not dead. She had not
killed that yet; and, rs | stood there, l
prayed to the Almighty in my heart that
my boy, my more than son, might live, ay,
even if he proved to be the man.
Then | went back as softly as l had come,
but still | could not sleep, the sight and
thought of dear Leo lying there SO i'll had
but added fuel to the fire of my unrest.
Ny wearied body and overstrained mind
had awakened all my Imagination into
~preternatural activity. Ideas, visions, al
most inspirations, tloated before it with
startling vividness. Most of them were
grotesque enough, some were CHASTITY,
some recalled thoughts and sensations that
had for years been buried in the debris of
my past life. But behind and above them
all lowered the shape of that awful wom-
an, and through them cleaned the memory
of her enhancing lovcliness. Upand down
the cave | strode--up and down.
Suddenly / observed what / had not no
ticed before, that there was a narrow aper-
ture in the rocky wall. took up the lamp
and examined il; the aperture led to a pas
.-u NJ, .,,., ,@,1l .,a To- .n..,IIx
to remember that it is not pleasant, in such
a situation as ours was, to have passages
running into ones bed-chamber from no
one knows where. If there are passages,
people can come up them; they can come
up when one is asleep. Partly to see where
it went TO, and partly from a restless desire
to be doing something, l followed the pas
sage. 1t led to a stone stair, which l de-
scended; the stair ended in another pas
sage, or rather tunnel, also hewn u of
the bedrock, and running, so far as Icould
Judge, exactly beneath the passage that
led to the entrance of our rooms, and across
the great central cave. / went on down
it; it was as silent rs the grave, but still,
drawn by some sensation or attraction that
l can not describe, / followed on, my stock
inged feet falling without noise on the
smooth and rocky floor. When L had
traversed some fifty yards of space l
came to another passage, running at right
angles, and here an awful thing happened
to me: The sharp draught caught my lamp
and extinguished it, leaving me in utter
darkness in the bowels of that mysterious
place. / took . couple of strides forward
so as to clear the bisecting tunnel, being
terribly afraid lest / should turn up in the
dark if once / got confused as to the direc-
ton, and then paused to think. What was
/ to do? / had no match; it seemed awful
to attempt that long journey back through
the utter gloom, and yet / could not stand
there all night, and, if / did, probably it
would not help me much, for in the bowels
of the rock it would be as dark at midday
as at midnight. l looked back over my
shoulder-not a sight or q sound. Ipeered
forward down the darkness; surely far
away / saw something like the faint glow
Of fire. Perhaps it was a cave where |
could get a light-at any rate it was worth
investigating. Slowly and painfully l
crept along the tunnel, keeping my hand
against its wall, and feeling at every step
with my foot before / put it down, fearing
lest / should fall into some pit. Thirty
~paces-there was q light, a Pickering light
shining through curtains! Fifty PAGES
it was close at hand! ~Sixty-oh, great
Heavenl
] was mt the curtains, and they did not
hang close, SO l could see clearly into the
little cavern beyond them. 1t had all the
appearance of being a tomb, and was lit
up by a fire that burned in its center with
q whitish flame and without smoke. In
deed, the G to the left was n stone shelf
with a little ledge to it three inches or SO
high, and on the shelf lay what l took to
be a corpse; at any rate, it looked like one,
with something white thrown over it. To
the right was a similar shelf, on which lay
some broidered coverings. Over the ire
bent the figure of a woman, she was side
ways to me and facing the corpse, wrapped
in q dark mantle that hid her like a nuns
cloak. She seemed to be staring at the
Pickering flame. Suddenly, rs | was try
ing to make up my mind what to do, with
a %convulsive movement that somehow gave
an impression Of despairing energy, the
woman rose to her feet and cast the dark
cloak from her.
1t was She herself.
She was clothed, as I had seen her when
she unveiled, in the kirtle o. clinging
white, cut low upon her bosom, and bound
in at the waist with the barbaric double
headed snake, and, as before, her ripping
black hair fell in heavy masses down her